School Settings: About Major Groups

Please note: your list of majors will be populated by your student import. Do NOT manually add more map your majors until your student file has been uploaded and finalized.

About Major Groups:

Exact program and major names can vary from school to school, so to help employers avoid confusion when evaluating student qualifications across the network, Handshake uses Major Groups.

Each major group on Handshake’s list represents a relatively broad field of study (for example “architecture” or “advertising”) which typically incorporates a number of your institutional majors.

When employers post jobs or search for students, they have the opportunity to use either a major group, or specific majors. Typically employers will only select the major group because the postings can easily transfer between institutions on Handshake. In order for students with those majors to be shown as qualified, your list of major names must be mapped to these groups.

Major Groups are not editable on a per-school basis. These lists were developed in cooperation with a number of our partner schools. If you do have feedback, please share your suggestions in a ticket with our Support team under the "product feedback" category. Our team reviews all feedback on a weekly basis and prioritizes requests with data and the greatest impact across the Handshake network.

How to Upload your Institution Majors:

During implementation, you'll need to upload your core student data file. In the file you'll have a few required headers, one of those being "primary_education:major_names:" This student data import is what will populate your list of institution majors in Handshake. Please do not manually add your list of majors unless instructed by your university success manager.

Major Mapping:

Once your student data file has been uploaded, the Career Services team will need to map your majors. Things to keep in mind:

Student Profile: Your custom institution majors (those imported in the student data upload) will always display on the student profile. Employers can see this name when reviewing their application) - the major groups are just the backend qualifications.

1:1 Matching: You can map your institutional majors to up to 3 different major groups - this will ensure that if there isn't an exact 1:1 matching, students will be qualified for a variety of roles in related fields. Outside of this, Handshake limits mapping each major to 3 major groups in order to keep our search and recommendation algorithms relevant for both students and employers. If we were to increase this threshold, students would technically qualify for all jobs, yet they would be at a disadvantage (and not populate) in employer searches and filters.

How to Map Your Majors:

There are two options for mapping - either from the Majors page OR the Major Groups page. Either way, you'll want to start with a pre-populated list from your student data import.

Map from the Major Group page:

Click on your school name in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

From the drop down menu, clickSchool Settings. You will see a list of tabs on the left.

ClickMajor Groups on the left. You will see a list of all Major Groups in Handshake, divided into categories.

Select the Major Group you’d like to edit.

ClickEdit Majors. You’ll see a list of all majors at your school.

Check the box to select any majors you’d like to map to this particular Major Group in Handshake. Note: You may uncheck the box of a particular Major to remove a Major from a Major Group.

Be sure to scroll down and clickSave in the lower right hand corner when you are finished.

Repeat steps 4-7 for each Major Group you’d like to define.

Map from the Major page:

Click on your school name in the upper right hand corner.

ClickSchool Settings. You will see a list of tabs on the left.

ClickMajors. You will see a list of Majors at your school and Major Groups in Handshake.

Click on the Major at your school you’d like to assign to a Major Group in Handshake.

A list of all Major Groups in Handshake will appear. Check the box of the Major Group you’d like to map this Major to. You may select more than one.

Be sure to scroll down and clickSave in the lower right hand corner when you are finished.